The prior art is replete with examples of rivet like members having a head with two or more depending shank portions that are insertable through an apertured work piece and expanded by a drive pin inserted into a through-bore passing through the head and between the sections of the shank. A common problem with the early versions of such rivets was the loss of drive pins through fracture and failure to be properly inserted in a like number of rivets. With the advent of injection molding it was found that it was possible to mold a plastic rivet having an integral drive pin connected by a frangible section at one end of the drive pin and ahead of the rivet. This is clearly shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,402,287 issued in the name of Henry Kearns on June 18, 1946. Other related patents which have issued as improvements to the basic Kearns principle of a frangible connected drive pin are found in U.S. Letters Patent issued to Rapata U.S. Pat. No. 3,385,157; Erickson U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,289 and Koscik U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,651, each of which have features which were novel over the prior art and related to means for accomodating varying tolerances in panel thickness, hole size and locking the drive pin in the rivet.
However, none of the prior art provided a ready means for removal of the rivet and reuse of the rivet. The prior art primarily relied upon destruction of the rivet for its removal, or alternatively, did not provide a ready means for the reuse of the rivet.